Nowadays, a computer is often designed to be able to enter several states such as a normal operating state, a standby state, a suspend state, and a shutdown state. In accordance with conventional practice, these states basically render a conventional computer either operable or inoperable in terms of processing information or performing computation. In the normal operating state, a conventional power supply outputs substantial energy for consumption in its host computer in order to perform information processing or to remain operable consistently. The normal operating function consumes substantial energy and requires assistance from cooling fans to dissipate heat generated from a CPU (or microprocessor) and other electronic elements, thus subsequently incurring unpleasant or annoying noise. The more powerful is the CPU, the more concern will be on heat dissipation and energy waste as well as annoying noise. Energy waste is particularly the most concerned issue for a notebook, laptop, or other portable computer when external AC power is not available.
In the shutdown state, a conventional computer is clearly inoperable and consumes no power or very little if a keyboard-power-on function is enabled. Although energy waste is eliminated, a computer placed in the shutdown state requires a tedious, time-consuming boot process to regain its normal operating function. On the other hand, the standby or the suspend state is provided for exiting the normal operating state temporarily in order to conserve energy. Both states are often referred to as the so-called sleep state in general. U.S. Pat. No. 5,530,879 defines that as compared with the standby state, the suspend state conserves extra power by saving the activities of a computer to its hard-disk drive so as to deactivate a conventional computer further. In a newer version of Windows' operating systems, this approach is used in the so-called hibernation process, which requires a slightly longer time to restore the previous activities as compared with a regular boot process. In contrast to the conventional practice, Applicant's pending application Ser. No. 09/293,089 filed on Apr. 16, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,341,354, discloses an energy-conserving motherboard and computer each comprising keep-alive random access memory for saving previous activities thereto and thus rendering the energy-conserving computer instantly accessible from the suspend state. Applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 6,341,354 is a continuation in part of Applicant's another U.S. Pat. No. 6,098,175 and claims priority thereto under 35 U.S.C. §120. In Applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 6,089,175, the feature of Suspend To Ram is firstly disclosed, lines 25-28 and 41-47, column 7. The so-called STR (i.e., Suspend To Ram) motherboards and the so-called IAPCs (i.e., instant accessible PCs or computers) currently produced are respectively the energy-conserving motherboard and computer disclosed in Applicant's pending application Ser. No. 09/293,089, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,341,354. While there are some differences in energy savings and quickness in returning to operation between the standby and the suspend states, a conventional computer placed into either state is deemed inoperable because information processing is basically ceased and requires a wakeup process to resume to the normal operating state.
Similarly, although providing these different states, a conventional operating system allows a computer only to operate or not to operate. Again, the standby or the suspend state provided by the conventional operating system basically disables the normal operating function in order to accomplish energy conservation while offers a quicker return to operation as compared with the shutdown state or the hibernating state. In other words, the conventional operating system accomplishes some energy conservation by idling computation or disabling information processing. Essentially, neither state allows information to be processed or computation to be performed. Consequently, the selection between conserving energy and processing information is constantly in a dilemma, because there exists no other alternative in between. For example, a user has to go through a tedious, time-consuming boot process even if it is simply to play an audio CD. Once booted, the conventional computer entered the normal operating state has to consume substantial energy mostly wasted and to incur annoying noise in order to dissipate the heat generated from the energy wastes. At the end of playing, another tedious, time-consuming shutdown process is further necessary. In view of these inconvenience and disadvantages, a user is then forced to additionally purchase a standalone CD player for the same purpose of reproducing digital music. Another similar dilemma is to play a DVD in the conventional computer.
Conventional wisdom keeps pushing for high-power microprocessors and faster computers, even though they are already speedy enough. Similarly, conventional operating systems become sophisticated enough for conserving energy but only in the standby or the suspend state. Thus, energy waste will remain increasingly substantial and uncontrollable in the normal operating state as a microprocessor becomes more powerful and power hungry. Previously, Applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 6,098,175 discloses energy-conserving power-supply systems. Unlike the conventional wisdom, Applicant's present invention for the first time identifies several unrecognized problems: (1) no operating system is able to eliminate energy waste in the operating state, (2) no computer power supply is capable of providing an energy-conserving operating function to a desktop computer without incurring unpleasant and annoying noise, (3) no motherboard is designed to have an energy-conserving operating function to allow information processing to continue without incurring unnecessary energy waste, (4) neither a notebook nor portable computer can extend the life of battery by eliminating unnecessary energy waste during operation, (5) neither a desktop nor portable computer allows a user to play an audio CD without requiring a tedious, time-consuming boot and then shutdown process, and without incurring necessary energy waste as well as annoying noise. Also for the first time, Applicant's present invention further solves these unrecognized problems and provides solutions to unworkable operating systems. Especially solved here are: (1) to provide an operating system to eliminate unnecessary energy waste during operation, (2) to provide a computer power supply with an energy-conserving operating function and an independent operating function as well, (3) to provide an energy-conserving motherboard with multiple operating functions for allowing a computer to conserve energy while in operation, as well as to eliminate the need of shutting down and rebooting, (4) to provide a notebook or portable computer capable of extending its battery life by eliminating unnecessary energy waste especially during operation, (5) to provide a desktop or a notebook computer capable of playing an audio CD or DVD without requiring a tedious, time-consuming boot/shutdown process and without incurring unnecessary energy waste as well as annoying noise, for the first time.